Well, Gaol is right. The island itself is really nice. But the problem he touched is just scratching the surface. My personal pet peeve is the fact that for most of my time there (i.e. most of my life) I've felt like I never really belonged. But in general, it's a lot of things having to do with the people. Instead of actually getting off of their asses to fix anything, most people would rather sit idly bye and bitch about how things suck and expected someone else to fix their problems for them. This is an attitude that seems to extend from the lowest levels of society (people whom have lived on welfare most of their lives and bitch about when the tugboat comes in a little smaller than usual) to the highest rungs of the political elite (we're on the verge of bankruptcy, yet the fuckers in the government would rather hang on to their huge salaries and run their little side rackets and hope that the US will come in and buy off our debts, save our credit and at the same time, not expect anything in return).
Unemployment is a huge problem and while the general global financial crisis, globalization and other outside factors play a good factor, nepotism runs deep most everywhere. Don't expect to get decent job unless you're connected somehow and I don't mean by "networking" and "knowing people". I mean, that the only way you're getting hired anywhere is if you're future manager happens to be a family member or some politician you helped during his campaign and in return for you're loyal service, he's giving you a job on his staff for a position that you're not even qualified for, whilst he's handing out furniture and appliances meant for tropical storm victims who lost everything, to your other family members as rewards for their support.
Thanks to the state-run utility companies, there is no competition for water and power services, so the state has a monopoly on those and therefore things like water and electricity are pretty expensive. Our infrastructure is pretty old and poorly maintained as well, so there are plenty of broken water mains, blackouts are common and roads are full of potholes.
Where in PA did you live?
About an hour and a half from Pittsburgh.
